Brick by Brick - Nehemiah 13

It's our final week in Nehemiah. Here we find ourselves in the final chapter of Nehemiah. And so we're in Nehemiah 13. And as we come to God's word, let's pray. God, we pray as we come to your word now that you'd speak to us, give us receptive open hearts to hear from you, that we might walk away changed.

We pray in Jesus name, Amen. I wonder if you can think back all the way to January. I know it's quite a while ago, but back in January, I suspect some of you made New Year's resolutions. Now, for a few of you, that's probably a horrifying thought because you think, oh, yeah, whoops, I did. And you've forgotten about it since.

If you have made a New Year's resolution, you are alongside 74% of Australians. 74% of Australians, nearly 20 million make these big commitments every year. They decide to throw out old ways of living and they commit to doing something different. The top ones are exercising more, losing weight, drinking less alcohol. Some of those are the top ones.

But research tells us that despite some initial bursts of enthusiasm, that the vast majority of people end up not sticking with it. I don't think that'd surprise you. If you've made commitments before, some of you would probably have had that experience where you started, with great enthusiasm. One study found that New Year's resolutions, 80% of people break them by mid February. So that means that by mid February, 20% are still going.

Another piece of research from Strava, maybe you've got that the running cycling app. It tracked data and it found that January 19th is the day that enthusiasm fails. So less than three weeks, old habits return on January 19th. If you manage to keep your New Year's commitments this year, well done, you're in the minority. If yours failed 2026, it's going to be your year, I'm confident.

But it does highlight for us that this world is full of broken commitments. This world is full of broken commitments. Even things that start with great determination, with great enthusiasm and energy often fall flat. Of course, it's not just our resolutions. It's not just gym memberships, which maybe this is your reminder to cancel that if you haven't been recently, or diets, which fail.

For some of us, the sting of broken commitments feels a lot closer to home. Maybe it's a boss who promised a promotion that then didn't come. Maybe it's a friend who said, I'll be there for you, but wasn't maybe it's commitments in a relationship that failed. Broken promises hurt. Broken promises remind us how fragile even our best intentions can be.

And that's exactly where we find ourselves as we come now to Nehemiah 13. If you remember the last couple of weeks, the people had come to God with great enthusiasm. They'd come back to God determined that they were gonna live the way that he had called them to live. If you were here for it, it felt like a high point. Here were the people, they came together, they opened God's word, they repented, they then made these firm commitments.

It seem their hearts were finally turning back to God. But then we get to the last chapter of Nehemiah and we discover that it hasn't lasted. Nehemiah has gone back to the king of Persia. He kept the promise from Nehemiah, chapter 2, that he would return. And when he eventually travels back to Jerusalem, he must have been devastated by what he found there because the walls still stood, the temple was still there, but the people's hearts had turned away from God again.

And we find that the people have broken these commitments, these things that they had declared that they were going to do. They've broken them. And if you turn with me to Nehemiah 13:4 we see the first of those broken promises says this. Before this had happened, Eliashib, the priest who had been appointed as supervisor of the storerooms of the Temple of our God and who was also a relative of Tobiah, had converted a large storeroom and placed it at Tobias disposal. The room had previously been used for storing the grain offerings, the frankincense, the various articles for the temple and the tithes of grain, new wine and olive oil which were to prescribe for the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers, as well as the offering for the priests.

I was not in Jerusalem at the time, for I had returned to King Artaxerxes of Babylon in the 32nd year of his reign, though I later asked for permission to return. When I arrived back in Jerusalem, I learned about Eliashib's evil deed in providing Tobiah with a room in the courtyards of the Temple of God. I became very upset and threw all of Tobiah's belongings out of the room. Then I demanded the rooms be purified, and I brought back the articles for God's temple, the grain offerings and the frankincense. I also discovered that the Levites had not been given their prescribed portions of food.

So they and the singers who were to conduct the worship services had all returned to work their fields. I immediately confronted the leaders and demanded, why has the temple of God been neglected? Then I called all the Levites back again and restored to them their proper duties. Last week in the message, when we were back in Nehemiah 10, we saw that after years of neglect, the people said, we will not neglect the house of our God. And those weren't just empty words.

They had put things into practice. They committed to bringing the first fruits of their harvest, the first of their cattle, their tithes to the house of God so that it would flourish. We saw that there was a practical element to this. They wanted to make sure that the priests and the singers who worked there in the temple didn't have to return to farming, that they were freed to lead the people in their worship of God. But there was also a spiritual element.

The people had realized that there was nothing better they could do than give to God what he had already given to them. And so, by the opening section of chapter 13, we see that this commitment to not forsake the house of their God had already failed. Failed. When Nehemiah is away, we read that Eliaship, a priest gave a man named Tobiah a room in the temple. Now, that name might jump out to you, because back in Nehemiah 4, as the people were trying to rebuild the wall, you might remember Tobiah was one of the enemies of God's people that came against them.

That he was the one who said, that wall is so weak that if a fox walked on top of it, it would knock it down. He was the one who, when his taunting didn't work, that he gathered with others and threatened to come and physically attack God's people as they worked on the wall. And yet Nehemiah returns back to Jerusalem and he finds that in the temple, in the temple itself, there is Tobiah. He's living there. What, what should have been devoted to worship has been turned into a home for their enemies.

Now, understandably, Nehemiah is upset. So we read, what does he do? He gets to buy his belongings and he throws them out of the temple. You can imagine this man racing through the temple in this fury, throwing these belongings out. I wonder if it reminds you of Another picture, some 450 years later, of Jesus in the temple flipping tables and kicking out those traders who had taken over.

Because the temple was supposed to be a place for God's presence, not a place for compromise. We discover in verse 10 that it gets worse than this. Not only is Tobiah living there, the Storerooms are empty. And because the storerooms are empty, the Levites and the singers have gone back to their fields to farm. They have to do that just to survive because the people had stopped bringing in their offerings.

And so Nehemiah turns to the people. He turns to them, and I suspect when he says these words, he reminds them of those years earlier when they'd made a promise. And he says, why have you forsaken? Why is the house of God forsaken? Why is the house of God forsaken?

We don't have their reply there. I kind of wish we do, because I think it could have been interesting. I wonder if they might have said, nehemiah, we didn't mean to. Life got busy. The harvest was in the fields, but we needed to focus on that.

We needed our resources for other things. We had debts of our own. We had business commitments. But they don't really stack up, do they? Those excuses don't really stack up because God had given them everything that they had.

And the people had made this commitment that they were going to trust God with their first and their best, knowing that he would provide for them. And yet they'd forgotten that so quickly. I wonder if maybe for us, that there might be different compromises, different compromises in our hearts. I wonder if there are other things that we have allowed to pull us away from God but there are other things that have taken up residence in our home, in our hearts, in our minds, that are pulling us away from God. Are there things that are in front of him?

Are there things that we are putting first in our giving, our priorities, our service, our worship, that aren't from God?

Nehemiah says to them, why have you forsaken the house of God? And when he says this, he's not just challenging them, he's actually calling them back. He's calling them back. He's inviting them to reorder their hearts. And so Nehemiah restores order.

He brings the Levites back in. He reinstates their offerings. He organizes trustworthy people to manage the storerooms. And then in verse 14, he prays. Shouldn't surprise us, because what do we know about Nehemiah?

He's a prayer, isn't he? We've seen that pattern right throughout the book. He comes to God here again, and he says, remember this good deed, oh, my God, and do not forget all that I have faithfully done for the temple of my God and its services.

Nehemiah prays like this across the chapter. And the prayers that he prays gives Us an insight into his heart. It's like a window. He doesn't care about boasting to the people about his good deeds. He doesn't care whether they think he's good or he's bad.

What he's saying is, God, I care for your house and I care for your approval. Above all else, let what I am doing be. Be worthy in your sight. And then he turns his attention to the second compromise. There in verse 15 says, in those days, I saw men of Judah treading out their wine presses on the Sabbath.

They were also bringing in grain, loading it on donkeys, and bringing their wine, grapes, figs, and all sorts of produce to Jerusalem to sell on the Sabbath. So I rebuked them for selling their produce. On that day, some men from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise. They were selling it on the Sabbath to the people of Judah and in Jerusalem at that. So I confronted the nobles of Judah.

Why are you profaning the Sabbath in this evil way? I asked. Wasn't it just this sort of thing that your ancestors did that caused our God to bring all this trouble upon us and our city? Now you are bringing even more wrath upon Israel by permitting the Sabbath to be desecrated in this way. So Nehemiah turns his attention from the temple, this time to the people.

And he discovers that on the Sabbath this day that God had ordained as rest for his people, the people are working and they're trading. Nehemiah sees that the city of Jerusalem is busy on a day when it shouldn't be. And I suspect he stands there in disbelief.

He stands there because he knows that God had given them the Sabbath to set them apart, to remind them that they could trust in him, that he was their provider. It was never designed to be a restriction to them. It was a gift of rest. And they turned away from it again. And so he says to the leaders, why are you treating as ordinary what God has called holy?

Don't you realize? Like, have you so quickly forgotten that this is what your ancestors did? That this rebellion that you are doing is exactly what they had did, which is why we had to rebuild these walls in the first place. Nehemiah, he must have been so demoralized. He must feel like all of that effort, all of that work, now we're doing the same thing again.

We've quickly turned back. It's like he's saying, have we learned nothing? And so, just like he threw Tobias belongings out of the temple, Nehemiah sets about taking action he has the city gates closed on Friday evenings. He throws the traders out. He stops them from sneaking back in.

And then in verse 22, he prays again. He says, remember this good deed also. O my God, have compassion on me according to your great and unfailing love. And then he turns his attention to the next compromise. There's a few of them.

Verse 23. About the same time, I realized that some of the men of Judah had married women from Ashod and Ammon and Moab. Furthermore, half their children spoke the language of Ashdod or of some other people and could not speak the language of Judah at all. The people have violated another part of the commitment, this covenant they'd made with God. They.

They had pledged not to marry the idol worshipping people who lived nearby. We saw last week that this wasn't a matter of race, it was a matter of faith. Because God's people had tried this path before. They had married people who weren't following God. And in doing that, it had turned them to compromise and idolatry.

It had pulled God's people away from him. And Nehemiah speaks of a practical reality here. He notices that the children of these marriages can't speak the language of Judah. That's an important point because Hebrew, the language of Judah, was the language of scripture. It was the language of worship.

It was the language of Israel's community life. The kids were growing up not knowing the language of God's people, meaning that they weren't being raised in God's word or in his ways. It's a challenge for us in our world. Isn't it a blessing? Language is less of an issue.

We've got translation services, we've got all kinds of things. But there's a matter of spiritual practice here. Are we raising our kids? The kids that belong to you or the kids of our church collectively? Are we raising them to know and to love the Lord?

Because that's the responsibility we take every time we have a baby dedication for those of you who have been here for that. We as a church commit that we will stand with those parents to raise those kids to know and love the Lord.

It's an important thing for us to do. And so Nehemiah, he tackles this head on. He banishes a priest. It's interesting, we won't read it, but it says there, he banishes a priest who has married into the family of Sam Ballot. Remember in chapter four, it was Sam Ballot and Tobiah, these two great enemies.

It's a line in the sand moment, he repurifies the people and he calls them back to faithfulness. And then we get to the very last part of the book. It ends with this brief prayer. Remember this in my favour. Oh, my God.

Now, it seems fitting that the book finishes with prayer. I can picture Nehemiah there. I have a visual mind, but I can picture him there on his knees before God. He's tired, he's feeling disheartened, but he's still looking to God. It's such a strong faith.

There's a sense that Nehemiah had done everything that he could possibly do to turn the people back to God. He'd done everything he could possibly do to try and keep them on the right track. But I wonder how you're feeling with been in this book for eight weeks. I wonder if I had to say to you nine weeks ago, how do you think this is going to end? How do you think it's going to end?

We probably would have said, the wall's going to be rebuilt, the people are going to be restored. They'll be safe again. And then that week we saw revival break out as the people turned to God's word. We would have said, wow, they're coming back to God. They're making commitments.

They're so fervent, they're so full of faith. It would seem to us like they'd finally made it. And I wonder if in that moment they felt like that as well. They thought, we've dealt with God's judgment. We've come back from exile.

We've finally learned our lesson. It's as if the promises of the prophets are coming true. We've been restored to God. We've been restored to. Restored to God's city.

And now we're ready for the promised Messiah who's going to come and rule and reign and crush our enemies. I wonder if that's how they felt. But it's not what happens, and it's so disappointing. Nehemiah's been this incredible leader. I mean, there's so many books that are written about Nehemiah as a model for leadership, but even this remarkable biblical leader, as much as he tries, he can't turn the hearts of the people back to God.

And this is what I want you to take away this morning. The point here at the end of Nehemiah, it's like the culmination of the Old Testament. It's a culmination of the old covenant of the Old Testament law that God had given to his people, that even when they really tried Even when they tried to do the right thing, even when they tried to follow God's law, those outward actions couldn't deal with the problem of sin in their hearts.

You know, I think that's the same tension that we wrestle with in this world because we live in a culture that is obsessed with, with being good or with at least appearing good. There's this, I think, a universal awareness. The world wouldn't call it sin, but deep down we know that there's something not quite right in our hearts. We know that our default is to be selfish, to be critical, to be negative. We find that we're easily angry or impatient.

We know we don't measure up. And so the world tries to fix that by saying, be a good person, care about the right causes, share the right social media posts, say the right words, live the right kind of lifestyle. Maybe that will be enough to prove that you are a good person. And so the people in our city, in your workplaces, in your family, spend their lives striving to be good.

Now, that's not wrong in and of itself. Don't hear me this morning saying, oh, oh, I'm so relaxed now. I don't have to try and be good. It's not what I'm saying. It's not wrong in and of itself.

But it doesn't fix the problem that we're wanting it to fix.

Because even when we're as good as we can possibly be, we still find selfishness and pride sneaking through. We still lose our patience. We still say things that we wish we hadn't. The world says that goodness is deep within each one of us, that if we just dig deep enough, you'll be good. But Scripture says the problem is within us.

The Bible says what we need is not self improvement, but a transformation of our hearts. And that's where Nehemiah points us. I don't doubt for a second that Nehemiah and those who are faithful to God reach the end of the story here with this deep sense of longing because it feels so incomplete. They've tried so hard. They were longing for something that would really transform them, that would reshape their hearts, that would mean that sin could be conquered.

They were longing for these promises that God had given to his people. For example, Ezekiel, the prophet in Ezekiel 36:26, God promises, I will give you a new heart and I'll put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart, and I will put my spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and and be careful to obey my regulations. I can almost hear Nehemiah praying. Lord, when will that day come?

As he looks at the walls that have been built, but as the people that have turned away from God again, Nehemiah prays, when will that day come?

Because we reach the end of this story, at least I do seeing the weight of human sinfulness. But the blessing that you and I have that Nehemiah could only look towards was the incredible hope of God's solution. Remember, Nehemiah is this last historical moment in the Old Testament. And so as we turn then from the last historical moment in the Old Testament to the Gospels, we see God's promise in the flesh. We meet Jesus and Jesus comes and he does what Nehemiah couldn't do.

He comes and does what no reform, no leader, no amount of commandment keeping could do. Paul says it like this in Romans 8, 3. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not. He sent his own son in a body like the bodies we sinners have.

And in that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins.

If you take one thing away from Nehemiah, I hope it is this, that our hope is not in our own efforts or our best intentions. Our hope is in the heart transforming work of Jesus. Our hope is in Christ, in his life, his death, his resurrection. You and I can be confident that Jesus defeating sin is enough. We can have an assurance that our salvation is not in our works but or our good deeds or our commandment keeping.

But our salvation is found in the work of Jesus Christ.

This morning. I wonder if you have that confidence. I hope that you do. But I wonder if you're maybe sitting there feeling a little bit unsure of your salvation. I want to give us a moment now as we bow our heads and as we pray that if you would like to take hold of that opportunity this morning, if you'd like to commit your heart to Christ, acknowledge that you can't do it, that you've tried to be good, but it's not enough, then I want to give you the opportunity to do.

And so we're going to pray and I'm going to give you an opportunity to pray as well. And then I'm not going to make you come up the front or do anything weird, but I invite you to pray. God, we thank you for those who come today with a great deal of confidence in you. We thank you that we can find that in the death and resurrection of your son. But Lord, we know that we live in a world that tells us try to be good.

And if you're good enough, then maybe you can overcome that inherently sinful nature that's within us. But Lord, we know it's not enough. We know it doesn't work. We know that what we need is not just command keeping. But Lord, we know we need a heart transformation.

And so we come to you now and we ask that you would transform us. That sin would no longer have conquered our hearts. But we know that the blood of Jesus has overcome sin and death.

If you'd like to this morning to commit your heart to Christ, would you pray this after me. Dear Jesus, I come to you now knowing that I'm a sinner.

I thank you for Jesus.

I thank you that he lived a perfect life, that he died a sinner's death, and that he rose again conquering sin and death.

I ask that you would fill me now, transform my heart, Give me a confidence that your goodness and your grace is enough.

We pray this in Jesus name, Amen.